Sony's Motion Controller Underwhelms With Janky Games

Wired: Sony let us try a few of the games after its presentation. On the whole, they weren't that much fun, feeling more like rough proof-of-concept tech demos than software that's will excite consumers. If the Move is more precise than the Wii remote, it didn't much matter when PlayStation 3's versions of tennis and bowling just felt jankier than Wii Sports. At this point, the software isn't living up to the promises of the technology.

Even IF the tech is more capable than the Wii (For all intents and purposes it is apparently slightly 'better'), the software shown isn't up to scratch. Wii sports has charm, these games just lack something, they look ok but they just seem so stale and mundane.

Anyone else have thoughts on the games shown? Obviously the 'Sports Champion' compilation is supposedly Sony's answer to Wii sports, do you think it will have the same success?

"On the whole, they weren't that much fun, feeling more like rough proof-of-concept tech demos than software that's will excite consumers."

Are all those games getting ready to be shipped tomorrow? Or next month? or even in the next six months? No, so assuming they are just that, proof-of-concept tech demos, would be the pertinent thing to do if you don't want to look like a pessimistic d*ckhead.

I think it is underwhelming because it is nothing differentiating it from the Wii. The Wii with the Motion Plus is already really good.

Sony should show us something utilizing the camera that the Wii can't. For all intensive purposes, I see no difference between Wii and PS Move other than the latter being more accurate in places it really doesn't need to.

come on guys.. Natal's ricochet ain't that bad... well, compared to my MS 720HD webcam that is.. I could complete a 5min. ring around the rosie and that webcam will be only 3mins in... not all camera's delay that much do they?!?!

you know whats underwelming, playing games with a chainsaw for a hand.

To much verbal diarrhea goes on way to early in proof of concept. We need to wait for the final product before we can pass judgment. When both Natal and Move launch the press and gamers will be able to see for themselves.

They showed a bunch of casual games and when the showed Socom 4 the guy was just sitting still like he might as well have had a standard controller is his hands as the Move added nothing to the gameplay or (from the looks of it) immersion.

I was pretty disappointed. I know these were first wave, tech demo type games but they were all underwhelming compared to the E3 live demonstration.

Motion Fighter and that Gladiator game were the only things that stood out in a positive way and even then only because they showed what might be possible with other games. The list of 36 on board developers was impressive but they still need to show something worth buying it for.

Demon Souls 2, an RTS, a better looking gladiator game (soul calibur legends?) They really need to step it up because so far the only real use I could see out of this is in a few sports games.

You got Sony's wand so deep inside your harts, or where ever, that you ignore the obvious issues they showed in the demos.

You mean to tell me that none of you noticed in that fight demo where the guy through 3 punches and his avatar only through 1? These game journalist were inviter there to test and report on their findings. You guy never touched the stupidly named device, but you are calling these people liars. You fanboys are a sick bunch.

PS3 guy at IGN and a few others I read said pretty much the same thing.

"Is it safe to add Wired to the ever growing list of sites who have formed a secret brotherhood with the sole purpose of ridding Sony from the face of the earth?"

1. When did any of us GAMERS actually say this? 2. I can say the same for 360 fanboys that always post about Sony fanboys. Don't pretend that they're the only ones claiming conspiracy when wearing tin-foil hats.

Well I think that once The PS Move is actually released and is applied to certain core gamer experiences like Killzone 3, The Playstation 3 will just keep MOVE-ing on up...to the east side...where Microsoft has never gone.

There you go, now lets see how many more idiot ways the word "move" is going to be used against the PS3 motion controller.

Wow, the fanboys are out in force on Move, some might even think you're afraid that it will be successful lol. The Move looks ok to me, but I still don't like the fact that they didn't show many great games.

SOCOM 4 looked pretty good, and I hate SOCOM. Eyepet looks a lot better with the Move though, so I might just have to get it so that my nephew can play Eyepet a little easier, because the magic card works well, but looks like the motion controller works better.

PS3 owners have never slagged the Wii because of its casual games, we just slag Wii owners who seem to think that the Wii is a hardcore system.

The Wii is nothing more than a casual system, but now the PS3 is about to become the all around best system to own, because it has the Hardest of Core games and now its getting the casual Wii type games too.

Of course the PS Move is underwhelming. It's a f****** motion controller! What did you expect? The only thing that surprises me is that we haven't seen the equivalent of this article for Microsoft's equally underwhelming project natal. Eeehhhrrrr... Actually... Scratch that, it doesn't surprise me at all.

@ Soda - And you still believe there's no bias in the gaming media?! Ignorance is bliss.

The same people who said all motion controllers would be terrible are now saying all these sites, who all agree with each other, stating that move is just a wii copy, are now all biased and the move is the next best thing in the gaming market.

Come on, PS3 move isn't going to move many consoles and really impact anything. Especially with Sony's advertising and marketing, the move is going to do just the opposite of it's name. At E3 we will see the final products of natal and possibly the move, and then we can pass more judgment.

From all the articles I have read, it seems developers are more excited and believe more in natal technology than the PS3 move.

I hope they both turn out pretty decent. Just think, if these motion controllers bring in casual players, they might pick up gears, mass effect, alan wake, uncharted 2, Killzone 2, god of war III and become more interested in better/hardcore games.

this isn't going to be or even meant to be the second coming of the PS3 like natal is herald as the 2nd coming of the 360... people are acting like sony is sacrificing the hardcore like nintendo did with the wii for the casual market. as of right now, in my opinion, nintendo has the casual market, microsoft has the online market, and sony has the hi-def market...

at least sony is TRYING to attack from all fronts rather than focus on just one single aspect. i'd rather them stick to pushing out more great first party titles though, but it doesn't look this will hamper those efforts anyhoo.

also, what i'm seeing here is a synergy of what sony is trying to accomplish overall: high definition, 3D, immersion gaming. combine a 3D enabled PS3 with a 3D TV and the PS3 Move... imagine the possibilities.

This author seemed to forget 2 important parts of the GDC keynote: 1) Its GDC: the point of a keynote here is to showcase how the tech works.

2) Sony stated that many of the games on display were still in development with one such game, Dukes (motion Fighter) only being at a pre-alpha stage.

What was showcased was not some huge E3-esque reveal for demos and game reveals, rather just so that other developers and consumers had a basic idea of what Sony were doing with their motion controller and how it basically worked.

In this respect, Sony accomplished this. Sure better and more refined demos would have been better but that was never really the point of the GDC keynote.

I think the point was to show that Sony, although is using an already tried system, is serious about it and not just hyping it. It seems they are pumping resources into the Move and developers are on board. It was also to show that the system is truly 1:1, and I think with the exception of motion fighter it was pretty much 1:1. After they announced that there will be 36 studios on board and 20 games being developed for the Move I would say that they succeeded.

n4ps3G Now what was your point of your comment and how was it supposed to contribute to this thread? Oh I forgot all you do is troll. Sorry, forgot where I was for a second.

I don't think silly bias exists with most of these sites, but that doesn't change the fact that Wired is a crappy website and has proven themselves as such many many times (about many many things, most not involving Sony).

"An area where Move seems markedly inferior to Wii, based on what we played, is pointing at the screen. Two games used the controller as a gun — the aforementioned Socom and a cartoony shooting gallery called The Shoot — and the control felt laggy, as if the cursor was trailing after my movements instead of reacting right alongside them."

I guess the 1:1 talk was nothing more than a lie.

"it’s plain to see that a full suite of Move hardware is going to be an expensive proposition: You need two of the controllers to play “Gladiator Duel” and the completely separate sub-controller attachment to play hardcore games like Socom."

Perhaps it's time to consider getting a fourth job? Maybe a fifth even.